


You can't outrun your Occupation, Jonah

by blue_blue_electricblue



Series: cw: graphic descriptions of elias [4]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, M/M, References to Angels in America, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, cw: graphic descriptions of elias, it's hard to be a prophet!!, mostly just an excuse to cry about angels in america
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23530525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_blue_electricblue/pseuds/blue_blue_electricblue
Summary: On Angels and Prophets, Avatars and Archives, Beholding and Servitude.Elias will always be there for Jon, a stop down the road, waiting for him.
Relationships: Elias Bouchard/Jonathan Sims
Series: cw: graphic descriptions of elias [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1693177
Comments: 15
Kudos: 66





	You can't outrun your Occupation, Jonah

**Author's Note:**

> quite frankly i did not think that i would ever write jonelias for the simple fact that i am,,,, jealous of jon,, how can you have such an amazing chance to learn more and end the world and become this beautiful powerful being and not want it!!! that's like!!! heaven!!!!
> 
> and yet, here i am, because jonelias dynamic Good actually
> 
> i feel like this is mostly an elias character study bc i go feral for the line "you can't outrun your Occupation, Jonah," but i think that there are Parallels to be drawn between jon and prior. but yeah this is super pretentious and really just a place for me to vent all my angels in america feelings. also everyone please read angels in america it's so VERY good
> 
> i am once again asking for someone to free me from my elias writing prison please i can't stOP

Jonah knows, of course, that in the end, he never had any choice.

There was no choosing the Eye. There was no decision making process. There was no moment where he decided  _ I want power and life more than I want love _ and then signed his soul away to an evil power.

Jonah knows better than that.

In this world, there is no choosing anything.

Certainly, he did have a moment where he decided that humanity and balance and goodness was less important than power and life as he watched his youth and friends slip away, to time or to fear, and certainly, that drove him to the Eye, but he knows that in the end, he would have served the fears in one way or another. Everyone does.

This is not a system you can escape from. There is no freedom from the chains you are constantly winding around your waist. There is no collusion, no way to work together and get out. No freedom. The only way to beat the system is to get on top of it, and hurt those below you.

And, in the end, is that really so bad? So evil? If one must choose between the well-being of oneself against the well-being of others, is it so evil to choose oneself? Is it so heinous to put your needs and wants over those of everyone else? Is it so evil to sell your soul and all that you love for a chance at power and wellness?

If he did not serve a power, he would have ended up as fodder for one. He knows it.

He is a Prophet of the Eye, and he knows it. He is a servant and a cog in the machine, and he knows it. He thrives on suffering to support himself, and he knows it, and he is not sorry for it. Everyone did, in this world.

“You can’t outrun your Occupation, Jonah,” an Angel once told a sick man in a play.

But the sick man  _ could. _ Because he was in a world where men could wrestle angels, and reject prophecies, and declare God a deadbeat father to be sued at your earliest convenience. The sick man could run and fight and scream, and eventually break free of the shackles that bound him, and then ask to live longer, ask for more life and freedom.

This is not a world like that.

There is no God, absent or otherwise, and he and other beings that sew fear and discord and terror are the closest thing to angels to the horrible entities that rule the world from afar. He sits in his Heaven, his place of power with its noticeably absent god, and he Watches the terror and fear. And he tries to bring his god  _ here. _

So perhaps he’s an Angel, scared and confused and hidden away in a city much like San Francisco and willing to hurt humanity for the sake of his god.

But he wasn’t always an Angel. Even if he is now, he wasn’t  _ always _ an Angel. He wasn’t so lucky as to have someone ease him into the Prophet business. There was no false choice presented to him, no way out. There was no one who came down and told him, “You can’t outrun your Occupation, Jonah,” no one who came and gave him the idea to try and outrun it, no one to fight against. 

Jonah could not and could  _ never _ outrun his Occupation, even if he enjoys it now. There was no freedom or escape, and he was always going to serve the Eye. He was always going to be the True Great Vocalist, the Tongue of the Land, the Seer-Head. No arguments. No fights. No wrestling with an entity he couldn’t touch. There was no rejecting his prophecy, no way to go to the Eye and say,  _ no, thank you, I want to return this, thank you for sharing this with me, but I don’t want to keep it. _

Well. He supposes he could, if he had to. He’s just not sure if he would have the  _ more life _ everyone so desires. And, in the end, even if he rejects his god and his prophecy, he will still be victim to it. Even if he gouges out his eyes, even if he betrays the god he served so loyally for so long, even if he says  _ I don’t want to keep it _ (which would be a dreadful lie, he most certainly wants to keep the power and what he wants even more is  _ more life _ ), even if he declares his god a voyeur and a freak and an absentee father, he even if he escapes– he will never be free. No one ever is.

He will still grunt and sweat under the watchful Eye of the Beholding, he will still suffer and fear and die in the court of terror that is reality.

If he must serve evil entities one way or another, he might as well do so in the way that allows him to succeed. To live as happily and as freely as one can under the circumstances. He might as well  _ get _ something out of it. It is simply pragmatism.

The Archivist still doesn’t understand this. 

Oh, his beautiful Archivist, so stubborn, so emotional. So  _ human. _ He still thinks he can fight his calling.

It is almost heartbreaking, to watch the will of the human spirit prevail even as the humanity fades away. To watch Jon struggle with his newfound role, to try and fight an entity that cannot be fought, to try and wrestle the Angel for his freedom.

It is almost heartbreaking, but that is why it is so good to Watch.

Jon made the deal.  _ More life.  _ This is what you do for more life. 

He shakes and sobs and wraps his arms around Elias’s waist, and Elias pities him. Poor little Prophet, forced into a world he does not like and does not want to commit to. He would give so much to just say  _ I want to return this– _ but he can’t. He doesn’t know how, and he wouldn’t, even if he did know. He’s so lost in this world.

Well, if Elias must accept the title of Angel now, he can. He can be the physical representation of all that Jon resents to guide him and give him something to fight, which he so desperately needs. Elias will press the prophecy into Jon’s body, and Elias will allow himself to be shoved to the ground and screamed at and argued with, because it is not easy to be a prophet, especially if you did not choose to be so. To be so human, to be an instrument of chaos, a thing to end the world because some power chose you– it is not an easy task. To be the Prophet, the True Great Vocalist, the Archivist and Archive and yet to fester in your human carcass that you cannot yet shed, to rot in the filth of your empathy and fear– you need something to help you, and you need something to  _ hurt. _

Jon cries into Elias’s lap, tired and scared and confused, and Elias pities and loves his Archive.

“Please let me go,” the Archivist begs. “Elias,  _ please. _ ”

“I’m sorry, Jon,” Elias says. That is most certainly a lie. Watching Jon suffer brings him closer to his ultimate goal, and watching Jon suffer pleases his god, and watching Jon suffer is so deeply spiritual and moving and  _ beautiful. _ He cannot be sorry for it. 

“You can’t outrun your Occupation, Jon,” Elias says, and that, however, is absolutely the truth.

Jon kneels before him and wraps his arms around Elias’s waist and cries. He needs the security, and he needs the assurance, and he needs the affection that Elias gives him. He needs the monster to fight, the angel to wrestle, the mandate to defy, even if, in the end, he cannot throw his arms around Elias and say  _ I will not let thee go except thou bless me _ and be free of any horrors and responsibilities to any gods.

Elias would never want him to let go, anyway.

Elias strokes Jon’s hair in the most reassuring way he can. All he can do is be there for this new Vessel of the Eye as he struggles through his growing pains, as he tries to tear down heaven above, as he tries to free himself from a world in which there is no freedom.

Elias gently tilts Jon’s face up and leans down to kiss his forehead. Jon rises to meet him, and wraps his arms around Elias’s shoulders, and kisses his lips. And what can Elias do but kiss his Archivist back?

Jon pulls away and looks up at him with beautiful, tearful,  _ Seeing _ eyes.

And Angel once told a sick man in a play, “On you in you in your blood we write have written: STASIS! The END.”

Jon is Elias’s end, and the end of everything. Jon is the most beautiful thing Elias has ever seen in his entire life. Jon is the end of two centuries of work. Jon is the coming of God and power and power everlasting for Jonah. Jonah has very carefully, very delicately transcribed, on him, in him, in his blood, through scars emotional and mental and physical, through kisses and praise, through his utter  _ devotion _ to the Archive, he writes inside Jon: stasis. The end.

“I love you,” Jonah says to his Prophet, to his Archive, to his end, to  _ Jonathan Sims. _ It is not part of his script. It is not part of his job as Angel to  _ love _ his prophet. It is not part of his job as Angel to be anything but guide and punching bag. But it is true.

“Do you?” Jon asks, and he  _ Asks. _

“I do,” Elias replies instantly, giving into the loving snap and curl of Compulsion as it sings down his spine, gives little electric-shock kisses across his skin that sink deep into his bones. “My Jon. My Archivist. I love you.”

Jon looks very much like he is going to start crying again.

Instead, he leans up and softly kisses the corner of Elias’s mouth.

“Tell me again,” he says against Elias’s lips. 

“I love you.”

“And tell me the truth.”

“You can’t outrun your Occupation, Jon,” Elias says, and it is the utmost truth. “Hiding from me in one place, you will find me in another. I stop down the road, waiting for you.”

Jon sighs heavily. “I was worried you’d say that.”

He kisses Elias again. Jonah’s future and godhood is kissing him. The Prophet and creator of the new universe is kissing him. This beautiful man who he spent so long crafting and shaping into the perfect, eternal form that would serve him and the entities and be  _ free _ and  _ powerful _ . 

“Tell me the other truth,” Jon says, pulling back and resting his forehead against Elias’s chest. “The one I like to hear more.”

Elias smiles sadly down at the prophet who cannot look at him, and who will never be free of the prophecy he is forced to carry inside him. He presses his lips into Jon’s hair, cradling the back of his head with his hands and pressing him to his chest.

“You’re my Archivist,” he whispers into Jon’s hair. “And you always will be.”

There are no angels to wrestle, no prophecies to reject, no possible ways to escape.

There is just Jonah Magnus and his Archivist, and the cruel gods that force them forward.

**Author's Note:**

> hey blue if jonah is the angel and jon is the prophet does that mean jonah rode him senseless to make him the archivist--
> 
> just started using [twitter](https://twitter.com/bluezaffre) so come say hi to me!!


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